Lately, there have been several NBA point guards who just can't seem to stay out of the news, whether that person is Allen Iverson, Brandon Jennings, or even Jason Kidd. Of course the player on everyone's mind is A.I., who announced his retirement a few days ago after 14 seasons in the NBA. Allen is set to meet with John Thompson, his former coach at Georgetown, during the weekend and will likely be persuaded to un-retire, ala Brett Favre.

Do I think that Allen Iverson is really retired? Personally, being the history aficionado that I am, the only athletes who I believe when they say they're retiring at an early age are running backs, since most of them fall off the map by the time they turn 30 anyway. I don't believe for one second that we have seen the last of Allen Iverson, and I say that having seen Jordan comeback twice, Favre comeback twice, a Lemieux comeback, a Magic comeback, a Clemens comeback and a thousand boxing comebacks.

In sports, athletes just don't walk away on their own volition. The ones that don't retire early stick around into their late 30's because they love the competitiveness too much, or they're afraid of what else they're going to do with their life, or they know that they'll never again make the money they're making now. That's why so many great players play to the point where they're unrecognizable from their prior selves and literally have to be rejected by every team in order to call it quits. That's sort of the process Iverson went through to get to his retirement, but he still has a lot to offer. No team thinks he can score 25 a game anymore, and rightfully so; but there's no reason why he can't step into the Jerry Stackhouse, Vinny Johnson, Leandro Barbosa role -- an instant-offense guard who can come off the bench and, depending on how well he's playing, stay on the court for the final minutes of a game.

At 34, Iverson is too young, too competitive and still too good to retire. If he can embrace coming off the bench, expect to see him on a team sometime this year.

Speaking of point guards, congrats are in order to Jason Kidd, who recently passed Mark Jackson for second place on the all-time assist chart. Already, the Mavericks have a three-game lead in the southwest division and Josh Howard has only played in three games. When, and if, this team gets healthy, the Dallas Mavericks could once again be a contender in the Western Conference.

Meanwhile, the team that traded away Jason Kidd -- the New Jersey Nets -- are in a world of hurt. In return for Kidd, the Nets received a young point guard in Devin Harris who few could argue wasn't substantially better (at this stage in their careers) than Kidd. However, with the Mavs at 11-4 and the Nets at 0-15, that deal isn't looking so one-sided anymore.

Tonight, New Jersey will play in Sacramento and will hope to avoid NBA history. Should they lose to the Kings, the Nets will come within a game of the '99 Clippers and the expansion Miami Heat for the worst start to a season in history -- 0-17. In game 17 they play the Lakers, so that's a loss. And who do they play in game No. 18 in an attempt to break the record? The Dallas Mavericks. Funny how that works.

[Correction Appended: I originally wrote that the Nets were 0-16 coming into Friday's game against the Kings, when in fact they were 0-15. Kudos to TheJay for pointing it out.]